Office of Postsecondary Education - U.S. Department of Education

Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 209 / Friday, October 29, 2010 / Rules and Regulations66843WReier-Aviles on DSKGBLS3C1PROD with RULES2For example, it would be impossible foran institution to identify and disclosethe full range and number of jobopportunities that might exist for MBAgraduates. As an alternative, thecommenters suggested that theDepartment require schools to disclosethe types of employment found by theirgraduates in the preceding three years.Other commenters had similar concernsand suggested that instead of disclosingall occupations by name and SOC code,the Department should allow aninstitution to disclose a sampling orrepresentative set of links for theoccupations stemming from itsprograms. Otherwise, the commenterswere concerned that an institutionwould run afoul of themisrepresentation provisions unless itfully and completely listed all of theSOC and O*NET codes related to eachprogram offered at the institution.Another commenter suggested that aninstitution should only list thoseoccupations in which a majority of itsprogram completers were placed.A commenter claimed that it wouldbe confusing and misleading to provideinformation on hundreds of jobs. Toillustrate this point, the commenterstated that entering a CIP code of 52 for‘‘Business, Management, Marketing andRelated Support Services’’ would lead to86 codes representing more than 300occupational profiles. To avoidconfusing students, the commentersuggested that an institution providelinks only to those careers where itsstudents have typically foundemployment.One commenter thought that the linkto O*Net was unnecessary becausestudents could use search engines toresearch potential jobs.Another commenter supported theO*NET disclosures because theadditional administrative burden wasnot significant and the change was longoverdue.Discussion: In general, we do notbelieve that the links to O*NET willlead to an unwieldy amount ofinformation when the full 6-digit CIPcode is entered on the SOC crosswalk athttp://online.onetcenter.org/crosswalk/.For example, entering the full 6 digitCIP code, 52.9999, for Business,Management, Marketing and RelatedSupport Services, identifies only ninerelated occupations (SOCs). As shownbelow, it is these links to, and the namesof, the nine occupations that aninstitution must post on its Web site.52.9999 Business, Management,Marketing, & Related SupportServices, Other11–9151.00 Social and CommunityService Managers11–9199.00 Managers, All Other13–1199.00 Business OperationsSpecialists, All Other41–1011.00 First-Line Supervisors/Managers of Retail Sales Workers41–1012.00 First-Line Supervisors/Managers of Non-Retail Sales Workers41–3099.00 Sales Representatives,Services, All Other41–4011.00 Sales Representatives,Wholesale and Manufacturing,Technical and Scientific Products41–4012.00 Sales Representatives,Wholesale and Manufacturing, ExceptTechnical and Scientific Products41–9099.00 Sales and RelatedWorkers, All OtherHowever, for 6-digit CIP codes thatyield more than ten occupations, aninstitution may, in lieu of providinglinks to all the identified SOCs, providelinks to a representative sample of theSOCs for which its graduates typicallyfind employment within a few yearsafter completing a program.Changes: Section 668.6(b) has beenrevised to allow an institution toprovide prospective students with Weblinks to a representative sample of theSOCs for which its graduates typicallyfind employment within a few yearsafter completing the program.Disclosing Program CostsComment: Many commenterssupported the proposal to discloseprogram costs. The commenters laudedthis information as more useful tostudents than disclosing costs by credithour or by semester and severalcommenters encouraged the Departmentto make this section of the regulationseffective as soon as possible.Some commenters indicated that theprogram costs in proposed § 668.6(b)(2)differ from the costs an institutionmakes available under § 668.43(g). Thecommenters suggested that all costs thata student may incur should be disclosedincluding charges for full-time and parttimestudents, estimates of costs fornecessary books and supplies as well asestimated transportation costs. Othercommenters asked the Department toclarify how program costs under theproposed Web site disclosures would becalculated differently than thoserequired in the student consumerinformation section of the regulations.In addition, some of these commentersnoted that although § 668.43 requires aninstitution to disclose program costupon request, many students do notknow to ask for it, or the information isnot currently presented in a clearmanner. Another commenter noted thatthe phrase ‘‘institutional costs’’ could beinterpreted to mean only those costspayable to the institution andVerDate Mar2010 14:10 Oct 28, 2010 Jkt 223001 PO 00000 Frm 00013 Fmt 4701 Sfmt 4700 E:\FR\FM\29OCR2.SGM 29OCR2recommended that the phrase bechanged to ‘‘cost of attendance.’’Several commenters opined thatproviding program costs would confusestudents. One of the commentersrecommended using just the net pricecalculator as that would also easeinstitutional burden.Discussion: Although we recentlyrevised § 668.43(a) to provide that aninstitution must make program costinformation readily available, not justupon the request of a student, thatsection does not require the institutionto disclose program costs on its Website. All of the disclosures in § 668.6(b),including the disclosure of programcosts, must be on the same Web page toenable a prospective student to easilyobtain pertinent information about aprogram and compare programs. Alongthese lines, and in view of the recentGAO investigation (see http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d10948t.pdf)raising concerns over program costinformation, § 668.6(b) specificallyrequires an institution to disclose on thesame Web page (1) Links to O*NETidentifying the occupations stemmingfrom a program or Web links to arepresentative sample of the SOCs forwhich its graduates typically findemployment within a few years aftercompleting the program, (2) the on-timegraduation rate of students completingthe program, (3) the placement rate forstudents completing the program, (4) themedian loan debt incurred by studentscompleting the program, and (5) thecosts of that program. The institutionmust disclose the total amount of tuitionand fees it charges a student forcompleting the program within normaltime, the typical costs for books andsupplies (unless those costs areincluded as part of tuition and fees), andthe cost of room and board if theinstitution provides it. The institutionmay include information on other costs,such as transportation and livingexpenses, but in all cases must providea Web link, or access, to theinstitutional information it is requiredto provide under § 668.43(a).Changes: Section 668.6(b) has beenrevised to provide that an institutionmust disclose, for each program, all ofthe required information in itspromotional materials and on a singleWeb page. The institution must providea prominent and direct link to this pageon the program home page of its Website or from any other page containinggeneral, academic, or admissionsinformation about the program. Inaddition, this section is revised tospecify that an institution must disclosethe total amount of tuition and fees itcharges a student for completing the